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Tuesday, March 3, 2015

What Color Is Truth, Anyway?

I’m sure you’ve heard about #TheDress. There are four women in my family, so we’ve talked about it a lot. My two youngest daughters and Isee the dark colors. My husband saw it both ways and wasn’t fazed. My oldestsaw white, then blue, then white again, then said, “It freaked me out so Idon't wanna look at it again.” Apparently friendships were ruined and somepeople said their very sanity was challenged.

In this case there is verifiable photographic evidence of
the real color of the dress. It’s not always like that.

There are different kinds of truth. My pastor has come up
with three classifications that I find quite illuminating.

There is objective
truth, like the color of the dress, like 2 + 2 = 4, like the sun rises in the
east and sets in the west. Yet even those are things that society has agreed
on. We could say 2 + 2 = 10, or west is called east. But we’ve all decided 2 +
2 = 4.

There is uncertain
truth. Today is the anniversary of the disappearance of flight MH370. We all
agree the plane is somewhere, but we
don’t know or agree where. Theories
abound.

Its existence is certain, its disappearance is certain, its location is
uncertain.

And then there is relative
truth. This is society’s favorite. Everybody can have their own truth. You can
have your own “god.” He can require little or nothing of you. He can be as
intimate or indifferent as you like. He—or she, or it, can be non-existent.
This way you can live your life exactly as you want to live it and can still
have the blessings of a custom-made god.

When it comes to the truth of the gospel, there isn’t any
photographic evidence. There is only faith. Now
faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
(Hebrews 11:1 NIV) And that faith should
affect every part of our lives. It shouldn’t be neatly tucked away in some part
of our mind so we can go on living exactly as we want. God came to earth to
make a difference. And he empowered us to do the same.

So here’s what I want
you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping,
eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an
offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.
Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even
thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. Romans 12:1 The Message

Objective truth is slowly disappearing in our culture. What are some non-confrontational ways we can show objective truth to those around us? Show the joy that Truth brings us? As writers, we strive to show Truth in our our books. How do you do it? Let us know!

Love your post, Carole! I've been a guardian of the Truth for a very long time and believe there is never a reason--never ever--to tell a lie. It breaks my heart that so many Christians seem to think little white lies are okay, to keep from hurting someone's feelings, on April 1st, it's only a harmless game (evidenced by the number of Christ followers who propagate the lie that Santa is real exampling lying to their OWN CHILDREN), to get what they want, to comfort. I love the Truth and capitalize it because Jesus says "I Am the Truth." Satan is the Father of lies, the being who agreed to go when God asked, "Who will go and be a lying spirit...?" Thank you for this post! :)